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sections on tours. The day we tour Schloss
Buckeburg, south-west of Hannover, and
which has been in the hands of the Counts
of Holstein-Schaumburg and later the
Princes of Schaumburg-Lippe for more
than 700 years, we’re quickly led past
one room with crumpled table cloths and
empty champagne bottles. The Prince’s
son, home from university, had had a
party last night and there hasn’t been time
to clear it all up. No worry, as there are
plenty of other things to see in Buckeburg’s
main palace of 180 rooms plus several
minor mansions, all on a small island in
a lake on the edge of town. It did start life
as a fortress in 1304, but additions over
the centuries have softened it. The last
great addition was the 1880s rococo-style
ballroom – built with proceeds from the
sale of the family’s private railway!
The castle chapel is an or nately decorated
place of worship, but the floor is a simple
tile design with one poignant feature –
under those tiles marked with crosses are
buried the hearts of family members.
The entire estate is 80 hectares and
includes some gorgeous forests with
walking paths, a riding school that puts on
regular shows and the family mausoleum
with an impressive mosaic dome.
In the tiny village of Hamelschenburg,
close to the Pied Piper town of Hamelin,
the palace still performs the role for which
it was built in 1588 by the von Klencke
family (who still own it), as the seat of a
farming business that remains viable by
sticking to the virtues of sustainability. It
sits right by the only road in the village,
with an approach through a stone gate and
past a small lake. Its facade is dominated
by gabled dormers typical of the region,
and a tour of the interior reveals valuable
collections of porcelain, furniture, artwork
and, common to castles everywhere it
seems, weaponry.
The state capital Hannover is a lovely city
in itself, but it was only two years ago that
restoration on its stately Herrenhausen
palace was completed following severe
bomb damage in World War II. (A reported
request by the British royals at the time
for the palace not to be a target, due to
the family connection w ith the House of
Hanover, was apparently ignored.) But
the gardens avoided any such devastation.
There are four, with the showpiece being
the Baroque-style Grosser Garten (Great
Garden), set out in geometric patterns
with swirls of plantings, water features and
striking statues. A cute quirk in one cor ner
is a grotto with a glass-encrusted mosaic
interior that makes you feel you’re inside
a kaleidoscope. Keen eyes will spot
Mr Bean spelled out on one wall – the
artist, Niki de Saint Phalle, was a close
friend of Rowan Atkinson.
A walk from the centre of town will take
you down the Herrenhauser Allee, a
forested pathway created as private access
for the royal family to their garden haven.
East of Hannover is Wernigerode, a town
full of historic, half-timbered buildings.
But towering over it is its schloss. There’s
been a fortress on the hill since 1110, but
it came into its own when Prince Otto of
Stolberg-Wernigerode began playing with
it in the 1860s. Otto started rebuilding
the schloss in every style imaginable –
Romanesque, neo-Gothic, Renaissance,
Baroque, you name it and there’s an
element of it in this grand jumble. He also
Clockwise from top left: The Hamelschenburg living room;
Hamelschenburg castle; The view from Colditz; The forecourt at
Colditz; The terraced gardens at Sanssouci; A glass-encrusted
mosaic at Herrenhausen; The ornate garden at Herrenhausen
16 June / July 2015
Wanderlust